Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Iran, 1951–1954, Volume X

888.2553/12–652: Telegram

No. 246
The Chargé in Iran (Mattison) to the Department of State

top secret
niact

Tehran, December 6, 1952—7 p.m.

2181. Personal eyes only Amb Henderson.

1. I saw Mosadeq this afternoon for one and one half hours and delivered your msg with strict caution re its personal and secret nature. (Deptel 1338, Dec 3) He was obviously extremely fatigued but became more animated during course of conversation.

2. He read message carefully twice and then commented. He finally wrote out hurried reply free translation of which is transmitted in my immed fol tel.¹

3. Gist of his oral comments fol:

a. He was disappointed and suspicious that the message was one instigated by Brit. Typical of his reasoning was statement, “If this has not been approved by Brit what reason is there for bringing this to me”. I did my best to disabuse him of this notion pointing out particularly that you had taken pains in paras 6 and 7 to be entirely fair in your presentation.

b. He said that because of personal and secret nature of message he cld not discuss it with his advisors. Therefore all that he cld say was that if your message was in accord with proposals Iranian Govt made to Brit and was accompanied by twenty million pounds AIOC representatives cld proceed Tehran and subsequent payment of twenty-nine million pounds cld be made after conclusion negots.

c. Without being contentious I attempted to persuade him that plan had merits both in its simplicity and fairness to all parties concerned. He said that his proposals to Brit had been approved by Majlis and therefore cld not be changed.

d. Mosadeq reiterated several times that he had hoped that you wld be able to make arrangements for large scale purchases of Iranian oil by US Govt and US companies. I explained difficulties; PriMin said he aware that you faced extremely difficult task. If you had not been successful he wld understand and hoped that you cld soon return here to help him with problems he faced.

4. Whole interview was extremely cordial and PriMin explained that he was speaking bluntly because he felt he was speaking with friends.

5. My only comment is that Mosadeq still adamant and fixed in his approach to oil question. However he again definitely stated his willingness arbitrate under all of conditions he has named.

6. It was agreed that we wld answer press inquiries re interview along lines that it had been three weeks since I had talked with him, that I had called to make arrangements for visit Sen Sparkman and Gillette and that other gen matters had been discussed.

Mattison

1. In this reply, Mosadeq said that Henderson’s message would be acceptable only if it conformed with the proposals of the Iranian Government which had been submitted to the British Government. He also stated that the Iranian Government would not deviate from its proposals. (888.2553/12–652)